Apart from presenting major benefits, the increase of RES installations in the electricity grid brings certain technological challenges, such as power supply and demand imbalance, and voltage instability, which in certain cases, drives to poor delivered electricity product. Based on ICT, AI and automation technologies, the “smart-grid” appears as a disruptive methodology able to regulate the complicated energy distribution landscape. Today, EMTECH offers the iReact (www.ireact.gr), as a smart-grid component to facilitate automated reactive load compensation in power distribution substations. The solution has been adopted by the Greek Transmission System Operator, and is now installed in more than 150 substations. The achieved benefits are 8% reduction in energy losses, 15% increase of released system capacity, remote monitoring, alerting and control. The objective of the proposed innovation by enhancing iReact (iReact 2.0), is to introduce in the market a real-time decision support & control tool for optimized operations in distribution grids, i.e. to extent utilization of the solution, not only in the distribution substation, but into the distribution grid as well. Based on real-time parallel simulations (near-future), fused with historical information (past), and real-time measurements and control (present), the tool shall inform smart-grid operators about near-future optimized operational scenarios, along with statistical possibilities to happen and the estimated benefits if applied. The application, either automatically or after user’s approval, shall remotely command all distributed controllers, installed in the distribution substation & RES and shall apply the selected operational scenario. Benefits achieved shall be optimum performance of the distribution grid, higher energy loss savings (up to 15-20%) thus reduction of CO2 emissions, better electricity delivered to end-users, and harmonization of the operational interaction between utilities and RES.

The ebalance+ project applies to the ‘Flexibility and retail market options for the distribution grid’ by addressing flexibility solutions, smart-grids technologies to increase the distribution grid resilience and defining and testing market mechanisms and tools incentivising the energy flexibility. In this context, the ebalance+ project aims to increase energy flexibility of distribution grids, predict available flexibility, increase distribution grid resilience and design and test new ancillary models to promote new markets based on energy flexibility. These objectives allow unlocking the energy flexibility market in distribution grids to support energy prosumers and electric operators. The ebalance+ proposal is an ICT platform that assure the integration and interoperability at any electricity domain, providing an effective market framework where electric operators and stakeholders benefit with new business models. The system is composed of units that implements algorithms to forecast and manage the available flexibility to incentivise demand response programmes and increase the distribution grid capacity to avoid congestions and advise optimization strategies. Besides, it allows integrating the flexibility solutions (developed and tested in the project): electric storage, V2G systems, SiC power inverters, power to heat, control of CHP and management of building devices with IoT-based systems. Smart-gird automation and control solutions will be integrated to enhance the grid observability and use the available flexibility to increase the resilience under critical events. The consortium is composed of 15 entities from 8 EU countries, which the participation of research centres, SME and industry. The solutions are tested in 4 real-life pilots (Spain, Italy, France and Denmark) with specific scopes and objectives. In addition, and in-Lab demo is developed to test critical use cases. Innovative market models regarding flexibility market for DSO-TSO will be simulated

PRELUDE will facilitate the transition to clean energy by combining innovative, smart, low-cost solutions into a proactive optimization service. The project is focused on assessing the right level of smartness necessary for any given household and then providing the optimal tools according to the needs of the user (occupant or tenant, owner or manager and energy service provider). It is designed to be versatile and adapt to the engagement level and monitoring and automation level of the building, motivating them to invest by increasing engagement and the smartness of the household. Passive solutions, such as natural ventilation and cooling will be prioritized through a free running strategy to reduce the energy consumption of mechanical HVAC. Predictive maintenance will be implemented to reduce maintenance and repair costs, emphasizing RES. Big data and advanced analytic tools will be used to facilitate flexible building-side demand and ease the integration into district heating and electricity grids. Proactive optimization will be achieved through data predictive control. These components will be interfaced through cloud middleware to deliver a highly interchangeable and interoperable solution. PRELUDE is designed as an optimization service, providing clear and pertinent feedback and suggesting retrofitting actions on a cost-efficient basis through dynamic building renovation passports. The project’s innovations will be demonstrated in a wide spectrum of applications: individual multi-apartment buildings in Turin and Geneva, large scale residential in Krakow, social housing in Athens, detached modern nZEBs in Denmark and on a district scale in the Municipality of Aalborg. Each of these cases featuring unique challenges and benefits for the users. PRELUDE will achieve energy savings exceeding 35% by leveraging both occupant and building operations. Similarly, maintenance and repair costs will be reduced by over 39%.